Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Title: Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
Author: Peter "marvin" Jurcovic
Date: Dec 2, 2002
Rating: 4.5
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Cards:
’ Objectives (1)
My Lord Is That Legal?/I Will Make It Legal
Locations (6)
Coruscant Galactic Senate
Coruscant Docking Bay (Special Edition)
Death Star 2 Docking Bay
Spaceport Docking Bay
Blockade Flagship Bridge
Naboo
Characters (12)
Darth Vader with Lightsaber (x2)
Darth Maul with Lightsaber (x3)
Emperor Palpatine
Darth Sidious
Dr Evazan & Ponda Baba
Arica
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Baron Soontir Fel (x2)
Senators (12)
Lott Dod (x3)
Orn Free Ta (x2)
Tikkes (x2)
Yeb Yeb Ademthorn
Aks Moe
Toonbuck Toora
Edcel Bar Gane
Baskol Yeesrim
Starships (5)
Chimaera
Saber1 (x2)
Zuckuss In Mist Hunter
Boba Fett In Slave One
Weapons (2)
SFS L-s9.3 Laser Cannons (x2)
Effects (11)
Fear Is My Ally (st)
Begin Landing Your Troops (st)
Combat Response (st)
First Strike (st)
Lateral Damage
Ability, Ability, Ability
Our Blockade Is Perfectly Legal
Accepting Trade Federation Control
Motion Supported
This Is Outrageous
Senate Hovercam
Interrupts (11)
Prepared Defenses (st)
Sniper & Dark Strike
I Have You Now
We Must Accelerate Our Plans
Squabbling Delegates (x2)
Shut Him Up Or Shut Him Down
Limited Resources
Sense & Uncertain Is The Future (x3)
Defensive Shields (10)
A Useless Gesture
Allegations Of Corruption
Battle Order
Come Here You Big Coward
Do They Have A Code Clearence
Oppresive Enforcement
Secret Plans
You Cannot Hide Forever
I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing (V)
Reactor Terminal (V)
’
Strategy: ‘
*Introduction
This is a version of a DS Senate deck which everybody seems to play, but nobody bothered to post an actual decklist to Decktech (as far as
I know). I built this using various TReports, my previous experiences with DS Senate decks and numerous testing and tournament games.
(I think the original version came out from somewhere in the Kashyyyk region, but as I said I haven’t seen any decklists posted.)
If you do have experiences with this decktype then I advice you to skip the “How to play it” part since it will deal with fairly basic things.
*How to play it
You start (obviously) with Fear Is My Ally and 10 shields under it. Via your objective you deploy Galactic Senate and either Naboo system
or Blockade Flagship Bridge. The choice depends on your matchup. Against LS LSC, Throne Room Mains (and clones) and similar decks you usually
start Naboo system, against LS Senate, QMC, WYS, Hidden Base, etc you start with Blockade Flagship Bridge.
Your three (and only) startable effects are Begin Landing Your Troops, Combat Response and First Strike, so you start these three (almost) always.
Against LS Senate and WYS/Raiders you might consider deploying only Begin Landing Your Troops and Combat Response, since First Strike can
cause more damage to you than to them in these match-ups.
With the exception of LS Senate, your first step should be setting up in the Senate. A good flipping combination is Lott Dod + Orn Free Ta, with
Tikkes as a back-up later. I usually don’t deploy more than these three senators to senate, but in some match-ups you might want to have Edcel,
Baskol or Aks Moe in the chamber, too. Deploy all four political effects and most of the time pull Oppresive Enforcement (unless you play
against WYS, MWYHL or you are absolutely sure your opponent doesn’t play SAC).
Your second step should be enhancing your activation with 1/0 docking bays, camera and/or Bridge (if you haven’t started it). Accelerate and Lott Dod helps you in this task. Sometimes you can choose an early beatdown instead - if your opponent made the mistake and left himself vulnerable (a first/second turn ship at system or a lone character at a site). But getting good activation is crucial.
If you started Naboo system and you don’t expect your opponent to play much space, deploy there and start draining for four and wait for him to make
his move on the ground. By that time you should have EPPs, +3/-3 effects, senators and Senses in hand so you should be ready to jump on him.
If your opponent plays a space deck, deploy Emperor or Sidious to spaceport docking bay or any other battleground site your opponent provides and start draining for three and wait for his move in the space. You have a whole lot of space power here and I haven’t experienced much troubles
against various HB/flip and EBO decks (But quite ironically, you can experience some troubles against MBO/flip because of the 14 direct damage
swing which you often can do nothing against. Luckily MBO still sucks against most other decks.)
In either way you should be able to deliver a good beatdown and your ability to manipulate opponent’s hand and destiny draws, quick and good drains
and (quite unfair) advantage in battles should give you upper hand in the game.
*How does V3 affect this deck?
The two cards you should watch out for are Scanner Techs (V) and Leia (V).
Leia is rough indeed, but Lott Dod OOP doesn’t kill you in any way, it just slows you a bit and usually results in having large hand (and therefore mediocre differential). The fact is that Orn Free Ta
and Tikkes can often cover Lott Dod’s job pretty well. From this reason there is no Demotion(V) protection here, because I found that a) people would prefer Leia anyway and b) you can actually play and win without Lott Dod. All in all, in close games Lott Dod OOP can mean the difference between win and loss, but in most games it won’t stop DS Senate to roll all over its opponent.
Scanner Techs meanwhile touches the true heart of senate - the political effects. But 3 force a turn is A LOT and most of the time your opponent won’t have enough force to pay for it more than 1-3 times per game. And you can easily grab the effects back to your hand with your objective
so you’ll have all on table again on your next turn. And you’re doing a force choke here, too. And the anti-manip function of this card is no big deal
since hand manip is just a nice bonus here and you don’t rely on it in any way.
What makes this version of DS Senate so strong - even after V3 - is the Naboo system and large space package. It brings the deck the much needed solidness and with Baron x2, Saber x2 and Combat Response you don’t have to
rely on Lott Dod to bring out your ships, like it is in traditional versions (see “Jacob’s MLITL” or “Subterranean Homesick Alien” as examples).
*Some card choices
Most of the cards here are self explanatory, but some of them deserve special attention
Sense kombo x3
Was originally They’re Still Coming Through x2 and
Ghhk & Those Rebels Won’t Escape Us x1, but the deck struggled a bit against LSC in that configuration. If WYS is bigger in your area than LSC, then play the original package.
AAA
Mainly against LS LSC, can speed things up in non-interactive games. Works great with hand manipulation.
Limited Resources
A little bit more manip. Can be repeatedly retrieved with First Strike or Squabbling Delegates and played multiple times (playing it three or more times in single game is no exception).
Senator selection
12 is the right number if you want to have enough to do +2/+3/-3 all in one turn and still have some more in hand during opponent’s turn. All key delegates come in multiples with a couple of Squabbling Delegates to pull them.
Emperor & Sidious
Excellent defensive characters. With +3/-3 and/or I Have You Now they can survive quite a massive attack. Just anticipate well if one of them alone at a site is enough or is not.
Shut Him Up Or Shut Him Down
Mostly against LS Senate where Bacta Tank can make a huge difference in senate fights.
Begin Landing Your Troops
I find boosted forfeit of senators more important then built-in Secret Plans. Shield capacity has not been a real problem for me yet.
*Some match-ups
LS Senate
Setting up Come Here You Big Coward at Naboo system could be crucial, but I would not start with it (LS Senate already has an activation advantage and it would be way too much). Zuckuss + Baron/Saber1 should do the trick most of the time.
Just fight in Senate and use your other characters as forfeit fodder (but don’t deploy to senate unless you’re prepared). Don’t forget that Baron is a politics 4 beast in this match-up, so you might want to save him for senate as well. In my experience Senate vs. Senate games are a) boring as hell b) like to go to time c) can easily turn either way.
LS LSC
Drain of 4 at Naboo system and AAA should help you a lot if this game turns to a drain race. Senses and First Strike will help you get past their avoid. LSC was designed to ruin Mains&Toys but you should overcome them.
QMC
Should be quite an easy game. Take their system and then take their sites. Unless something terribly wrong happens you should win. Sense = money.
WYS
Taking their space could be crucial, but difficult since you have nothing against their avoid. Deploy Edcel Bar Gane to senate, drain in cantina and at their system(s). If WYS is more popular than LSC in your are, switch Senses to They’re Still Coming Through’s and Ghhhk kombo (as was already mentioned).
Straight mains of any kind
Senate has unfair advantage in battles. These decks are generally ground-oriented, so set up drain 2-4 at Naboo system and then fight them at the ground. Since you’re draining for 4 and they’re not they’ll have to make the first move and that will allow YOU to attack THEM and not the other way, like they would like.
Space decks
Drop Emperor or Sidious to some battleground site (your spaceport docking bay for example) and start draining for 3. Once again, they’ll have to make their move in space because you’re draining and they’re not, so just prepare your hand with Lott Dod and then fight them.
*Some questions and answers
No Coruscant Guard?
The guard would be here basicly for two reasons against LS Senate and against WYS. I didn’t find him too useful in any of these match-ups. Against LS Senate, you’ll want to drop some forfeit fodder (like Vader or Maul ) to Senate anyway and against WYS, +3/-3 and boosted forfeit should be enough. And all key delegates are here in multiple copies, so loosing some of them is not that big deal anyway.
Arica instead of Keder?
Since I’ve got a very limited ground package I decided to put Arica here since she actually does something on her own in non-mirror match-ups.
*Conclusion
DS Senate with Naboo system and large space package still remains one of the most powerful decktypes in the game. V3 hardly did something about that and that makes me a little bit sad because it strongly limits number of viable
LS decks.
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